Grapevine plant named ‘Errante Noir’

ABSTRACT

A new and distinct variety of grapevine plant named ‘Errante Noir’, particularly selected for its high resistance to Pierce&#39;s disease, as well as quality of fruit and wines produced is disclosed.

Latin name:

Botanical classification: Vitis vinifera L.

Varietal denomination: The varietal denomination of the claimed varietyof grapevine plant is ‘Errante Noir’.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Pierce's disease (PD) is common across the southern United States fromVirginia to northern California. It is also common across Mexico andCentral America. The disease is caused by the bacterium Xylellafastidiosa, which is hosted by a very wide range of native andornamental plants. The bacterium is spread by xylem feeding insects asvectors, primarily sharpshooters. PD is one of the few diseases thatrapidly kills wine, table, and raisin grape cultivars of the cultivatedgrape, Vitis vinifera. Vector populations can be limited withinsecticides, but these are difficult to use near their typicallyriparian native habitat or in the ornamental landscapes in which theyflourish. Breeding for PD resistance has been active for over 70 years,but progress has been very slow due to a poor understanding of thegermplasm and the typically multigenic nature of the resistance in mostof the resistant grape species. The two most commonly grown PD resistantvarieties, ‘Blanc du Bois’ and ‘Lenoir’ (‘Lenoir’ is also known as‘Black Spanish’ or ‘Jacquet’), are F₁ hybrids between V. viniferacultivars and resistant American grape species from the southern UnitedStates, and are therefore only about 50% of V. vinifera. ‘Blanc du Bois’and ‘Lenoir’ produce wines with lower quality than V. vinifera winegrape varieties, and they are tolerant of, rather than resistant to, X.fastidiosa infection, which results in their potential to expand areasdamaged by PD due to their ability to act as host plants for thebacteria and vectors. Neither ‘Blanc du Bois’ nor ‘Lenoir’ are patented.

Grapevine is an important and valuable crop. Accordingly, there is aneed for new varieties of grapevine plant. In particular, there is aneed for improved varieties of grapevine plant that produce high qualityfruit for winemaking and are resistant to Pierce's disease.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to meet these needs, the present invention is directed to animproved variety of grapevine plant. In particular, the inventionrelates to a new and distinct variety of grapevine plant (Vitis viniferaL.), which has been denominated as ‘Errante Noir’. Grapevine plantvariety ‘Errante Noir’ possesses very strong resistance to the bacterialcausal agent of Pierce's disease (PD), and produces very high qualityfruit and wines therefrom that are indistinguishable from the widelygrown European wine grape cultivars. Other PD resistant cultivars areknown, but their fruit and winemaking quality are poor in comparison to‘Errante Noir’ and their resistance is much lower.

In particular, grapevine plant variety ‘Errante Noir’ is a red winegrape selection that is about 97% V. vinifera (including 50% ‘Sylvaner’,12.5% ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’, 12.5% ‘Carignane’, and 12.5% ‘Chardonnay’)and is highly resistant to PD in repeated greenhouse and fieldevaluations. In comparison, the two most commonly grown PD resistantvarieties, ‘Blanc du Bois’ and ‘Lenoir’, are only about 50% of V.vinifera. ‘Errante Noir’ has a mid-season bloom and ripening period andhas relatively large berries and loose clusters. It is highlyproductive. Wines made from fruit of ‘Errante Noir’ grown in Davis,Calif. may be described as: ‘dark-red purple color’; ‘complex fruit withherbs and earth’, ‘plum’, ‘big wine’, ‘dense’, ‘rich middle’, and‘tannic yet balanced’. ‘Errante Noir’ is also deemed to have greatblending potential with Cabernet Sauvignon. Wines made from fruit of‘Errante Noir’ are also noted for their high levels of high qualitytannin.

Pedigree and Breeding History

The development of this new grapevine variety is in part a result of thediscovery of a single dominant gene for resistance to Xylellafastidiosa, the bacterial causal agent of Pierce's disease (PD). Thesource of the PD resistance is a form of V. arizonica (‘b43-17’) thatappears to have some V. candicans parentage and is from Monterrey,Mexico. ‘b43-17’ was crossed to the susceptible V. rupestris ‘A. deSerres’ to create the F8909 population. Neither ‘b43-17’ nor ‘A. deSerres’ are patented. The resistance from ‘b43-17’ was found to beinherited as a single dominant gene (locus), and this resistance gene,PdRl, was genetically mapped using the F8909 population by a grapevinebreeding program. Tightly linked simple sequence repeat (SSR) markerswere developed and were used in marker-assisted selection to excludesusceptible plants from evaluation in each round of selection. All theprogeny with PdRl were tested for PD resistance and only those withstrong resistance were considered for use as parents. Potential parentswere also screened for fruit quality over generations and only thosewith good quality fruit and that appeared like V. vinifera wereselected.

Line ‘F8909-08’ from the F8909 population was crossed to ‘P79-101’, ahighly susceptible, advanced V. vinifera table grape selection from agrape breeding program. The resulting ‘F8909-08’ X ‘P79-101’ F₁generation and progeny thereof were screened with the SSR markers forresistance to X. fastidiosa under greenhouse conditions. A highlyresistant selection from the ‘F8909-08’ X ‘P79-101’ cross, ‘00504-20’,was crossed to another V. vinifera table grape from a grape breedingprogram, ‘B52-89’, to create ‘A81-138’, which was also selected for itsvery high resistance to PD. ‘A81-138’ was then used to cross to V.vinifera wine grapes for several generations of modified backcrossing toobtain the candidate selection ‘09356-235’, which was later named as‘Errante Noir’. None of the parents across the multiple backcrossgenerations are patented. These backcrosses were modified because of thehigh heterozygosity and recessive load found in grapes. Hence, to avoidexposure of deleterious recessive alleles, each generation ofbackcrossing was to a different and unrelated high quality V. viniferacultivar.

Accordingly, the parentage of ‘Errante Noir’ is ‘07371-019’ (‘F2-35’(‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ X ‘Carignane’) X ‘U0502-26’ (‘A81-138’ X‘Chardonnay’)) X V. vinifera ‘Sylvaner’. ‘Errante Noir’ was particularlyselected for its high resistance to Pierce's disease, as well as thequality of its fruit and wines produced therefrom. It is distinguishablefrom its maternal parent, 07371-019, by its deeply lobed leaves, andfrom its paternal parent by its strong resistance to Xylella fastidiosa.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

This new grapevine plant variety is illustrated by the accompanyingphotographs. The colors shown are as true as can be reasonably obtainedby conventional photographic procedures. The photographs are of plantsthat are five to seven years old. Colors referred to are in reference toThe Royal Horticultural Society Colour Charts Edition V.

FIG. 1 shows simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker data establishing a DNAfingerprint for ‘Errante Noir’ with nine pure Vitis vinifera cultivarsfor comparison. Alleles for marker-assisted selection of the Xylellafastidiosa locus (PdRl) are shown in red.

FIG. 2 illustrates the upper surface of a leaf of grapevine plantvariety ‘Errante Noir’.

FIG. 3 illustrates the lower surface of a leaf of grapevine plantvariety ‘Errante Noir’.

FIG. 4 illustrates a section of a shoot tip of grapevine plant variety‘Errante Noir’.

FIG. 5 illustrates clusters of berries of grapevine plant variety‘Errante Noir’.

FIG. 6 illustrates a plant of grapevine plant variety ‘Errante Noir’.

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

The following is a detailed description of the new grapevine plantvariety designated as ‘Errante Noir’, including the key differentiatingcharacteristics of this variety and comparisons of characteristics of‘Errante Noir’ to other grapevine varieties. Unless otherwise indicated,evaluation data were taken from five to seven-year-old plants, grown inDavis, Calif.

-   Classification:    -   -   Family.—Vitaceae.        -   Botanical name.—Vitis vinifera L.        -   Common name.—Grapevine.        -   Variety name.—‘Errante Noir’.-   Parentage:    -   -   Female parent.—‘07371-19’ (unpatented).        -   Male parent.—‘Sylvaner’ (unpatented).-   Plant:    -   -   Berries.—Medium, spherical, purple black with grey bloom.        -   Clusters.—Large, long conical, well-filled, can be double.        -   Leaves.—Five-lobed cuneiform in outline, relatively deep            cylindrical lateral sinuses and u-shaped petiolar sinus,            short rounded teeth on leaf margin, glabrous adaxial leaf            surface, short sparse tomentum on the abaxial surface,            petioles red purple with color diffusing into the main            veins.        -   Shoot tips.—Erect, green white with white shoot tip.        -   Production.—Mid-season bloom and ripening period, highly            productive.        -   Method of propagation.—Vegetative propagation via woody or            herbaceous cuttings, or budding and grafting to rootstock.            ‘Errante Noir’ has been asexually reproduced since June 2009            at greenhouses at Orchard Park Dr. in Davis, Calif. from            herbaceous cuttings. Any rootstock can be used with the            variety. Most often it will be grown on rootstocks that            resist grape phylloxera and/or nematodes. In testing,            selections were evaluated grafted on ‘1103P’ rootstock,            which is not patented. It was chosen for ease of propagation            and because it is widely used in California. The variety has            been grafted on many other rootstocks for testing in field            trials as well.

‘Errante Noir’ has the highest form of resistance to X. fastidiosacoupled with the highest wine quality of any PD resistant wine grape yetproduced. ‘Errante Noir’ is selected for very high resistance, not themore commonly found tolerance, to prevent the production of host plantscapable of further spreading PD to surrounding vineyards.

‘Errante Noir’ has a very strong PD resistance and the highest winequality of any currently used PD resistant wine grape. PD is one of thefew diseases that kill susceptible grapevines. Two most popular PDresistant wine grape varieties, ‘Blanc du Bois’ and ‘Lenoir’ (‘Lenoir’is also known as ‘Black Spanish’ or ‘Jacquez’), were used as controls orstandards in all testing so that the wine quality and resistance of thecandidate variety could be compared to available PD resistant varietiesused across the southern United States. It is noted that ‘Blanc du Bois’and ‘Lenoir’ have relatively poor wine quality and are tolerant, notresistant, to PD. Neither ‘Blanc du Bois’ nor ‘Lenoir’ are patented.

‘Errante Noir’ has far better PD resistance and wine quality whencompared with ‘Blanc du Bois’ and ‘Lenoir’. In other words, ‘ErranteNoir’ combines very strong resistance to X. fastidiosa with the winequality of internationally acclaimed wine grape cultivars. ‘ErranteNoir’ was selected as a variety that exhibits high resistance to X.fastidiosa and V. vinifera-like wine quality. The data presented beloware intended to further characterize ‘Errante Noir’. The appearance of‘Errante Noir’ is illustrated in FIGS. 2-6, and further characteristicsof ‘Errante Noir’ are shown in Tables 1-8.

FIG. 1 presents the DNA fingerprinting profile for ‘Errante Noir’ andnine pure Vitis vinifera cultivars for comparison with the standard setof internationally agreed-upon genetic markers. This SSR fingerprintingprofile can be used for DNA-based identification.

Table 1 presents typical phenological data for ‘Errante Noir’. Thesedata are for 2016, but the ranking of the selections in regard to anearly cultivar (‘Pinot noir’) and a late cultivar (‘Cabernet Sauvignon’)have been typical over years. In general, ‘Errante Noir’ isphenologically mid-season. Based upon the percentage of V. vinifera inthe present variety and the data regarding its parents, the variety isexpected to grow in USDA Hardiness Zone 6-7.

TABLE 1 Average phenological states for ‘Errante Noir’. ‘CabernetSauvignon’ (late) and ‘Pinot noir’ (early) are included as comparisons.50% Cultivar Budbreak 50% bloom veraison 24 °Brix ‘Errante Noir’ 3/225/7 7/17 8/23 ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ 3/24 5/7 7/21 8/30 ‘Pinot Noir’ 3/10 4/30 7/9  8/9 

Table 2 presents the average cluster and berry data for ‘Errante Noir’and averaged over multiple years.

TABLE 2 Average cluster and berry sizes of ‘Errante Noir’ and itscomparison varieties. Data are averages over multiple years. Num- Avg.t-test Avg. t-test ber of Cluster Cluster Berry Berry Genotype Years Wt.(g) Wt. Wt. (g) Wt. Clusters ‘Errante Noir’ 5 329 a 1.3 abc Well-filled‘Blanc du Bois’ 6 148 d 1.5 a Well-filled ‘Cabernet 6 132 d 1.2 c Looseto Sauvignon’ well-filled ‘Chardonnay’ 6 196 cd 1.5 ab Well-filled tocompact ‘Lenoir’ 6 157 d 1.3 bc Loose

Table 3 presents the average yield per vine data taken over 2016 to2018.

TABLE 3 Average production data for ‘Errante Noir’ and its comparisonvarieties. Data are averages from three years (2016 to 2018). Avg.Yield/ Std. Dev. Number of Genotype Vine (kg) (kg) t-test Years ‘ErranteNoir’ 10.5 4.5 a 3 ‘Blanc du Bois’ 12.7 1.8 a 3 ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’10.9 1.8 a 3 ‘Chardonnay’ 10.9 3.2 a 3 ‘Lenoir’ 20.0 6.8 b 3

Mean berry juice data were also taken and Table 4 presents this dataover a five-year period between 2014 and 2018. These values areconsistent with cultivars that produce high quality wines.

TABLE 4 Average juice data for ‘Errante Noir’ and its comparisonvarieties. Data are averages from five years (2014 to 2018). t-test Avg.t-test Avg. Genotype Avg. °Brix °Brix Avg. pH pH ‘Errante 25.4 b 3.69 bcNoir’ ‘Blanc du 23.5 c 3.58 bc Bois’ ‘Cabernet 25.8 b 3.74 abcSauvignon’ ‘Char- 23.3 cd 3.68 bc donnay’ ‘Lenoir’ 21.3 e 3.96 a Avg.titratable t-test Avg. L-malic t-test Genotype acidity (g/L) Avg. TAacid (g/L) Avg. MA ‘Errante 5.7 cde 2.6 b Noir’ ‘Blanc du 5.2 de 2.3 bcdBois’ ‘Cabernet 5.2 de 1.9 bcd Sauvignon’ ‘Char- 5.9 cd 2.4 bc donnay’‘Lenoir’ 9.1 a 4.5 a

Xylella fastidiosa susceptibility data are presented in Table 5, whichpresents the levels of X. fastidiosa in relationship to tolerant (‘Blancdu Bois’ and to a lesser extent, ‘Lenoir’) and susceptible (‘Chardonnay’and ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’) cultivars. These are also mean data fromrepeated testing over seasons and greenhouses. Because of the highvariation in greenhouse conditions, at least four standards(bio-controls) were always used: ‘b43-17’, ‘Blanc du Bois’, ‘Lenoir’,and ‘Chardonnay’ (and occasionally other V. vinifera cultivars), whichallows the data to be compared across greenhouses, tests and seasons.These varieties tend to be very consistent in the amounts of bacteriathey support as well as the severity of their disease expression. Thecut-off between resistant and susceptible is usually between 75,000 and250,000 colony forming units per milliliter (cfu/ml).

TABLE 5 Xylella fastidiosa concentrations based on ELISA readings andconverted to colony forming units (cfu/ml). Vitis arizonica ‘b43-17’ isthe source of resistance in the breeding program. Geometric Number MeanLeast Sq. Std. of Times Cultivar cfu/ml t-test Mean Error Tested‘b43-17’ 12423 a 9.4 0.2 11 ‘Errante Noir’ 78958 b 11.3 0.4 4 ‘Blanc duBois’ 859096 c 13.7 0.2 11 ‘Lenoir’ 2421748 d 14.7 0.6 2 ‘Chardonnay’5197228 d 15.5 0.2 11 ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ 6582993 d 15.7 0.8 1

Table 6 presents the phenotype of ‘Errante Noir’. The variety has normalhermaphroditic flowers and typical floral development as is found incommercial V. vinifera wine grapes.

‘Errante Noir’ Berry L, W 1.3 cm × 1.4 cm Seed number, length and 2width typical for V. vinifera wine grapes, but not measured Cluster L,W, 10.0 cm × 23.5 cm 2 clusters/shoot Pruning weights 2.35 kg Trunkwidth at 30 cm 4.6 cm Trunk color and texture Rough shaggy bark 178DWoody shoots diameter 1.0 cm/4.5 cm above cluster/and internode lengthWoody shoot texture First year bark and color adheres but peels instrips in second year 164B Active shoot color, 142D internode colorabove N144C the cluster zone/cluster 1.0 cm/6.6 cm zone shootdiameter/internode length (shoots same size as woody canes in thecluster zone) Tendril length, diameter 10.5 cm Tendril color, Opposite0.2 cm leaves and alternating 2 N144B nodes skip 2 nodes skip Seed color165B # Berries/cluster 355 Berry color skin and 203C waxy bloom 190DLeaves L, W 24.0 cm × 20.0 cm Leaf arrangement, leaf Alternate, palmateshape, and leaf color with 5 lobes Top/Bottom 141A/141D Petiole L,diameter, 12.5 cm texture 0.4 cm smooth Petiole color 70A Shoot tipcolor (first 143C opened leaf) Harvest date Aug. 20 Peduncle L, diam.,1.5 cm color, texture 0.5 cm N144B Smooth

Flower Descriptions

The floral buds and flower clusters are formed within the latent(dormant) bud in the year before flowering. As the pre-formed nodes onthe compressed stems within the latent bud expand and the flowerclusters begin developing and the individual flowers on the paniclebegin forming. They are very small 2-4 mm and closer to 2 mm with winegrapes.

Berry Descriptions

The variety is not a “slip-skin” type grape. They have skin that adheresto the flesh tightly. They are not firm at ripeness and are softcompared to modern era table grapes at harvest. The pedicels have normalattachment to the berries and are not distinguishable from other V.vinifera wine grapes in this or other morphological features, nor injuice and wine analysis.

Fruit and Juice Parameters

YAN is yeast assimilable nitrogen and helps predict fermentationsuccess. Seed color is rated as green to brown for mature seeds.

Leaf Descriptions

Cuneiform leaves with deep open lateral sinuses, open U shaped petiolarsinus, short rounded teeth, moderately dense tomentum on adaxialsurface, red purple (70A) petioles with color that diffuses into themain veins

Table 7 presents the wine characteristics of ‘Errante Noir’.

L-malic TA acid Potassium °Brix (g/L) pH (g/L) (mg/L) ‘Errante 27.0 5.03.74 1.9 2380 Noir’ YAN Total (mg/L, Catechin Tannin anthocyanins as N)(mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) ‘Errante 189 31 407 1638 Noir’

Table 8 presents the juice, fruit and phenotypes of ‘Errante Noir’.

Juice Hue Juice Intensity Juice Flavor Skin Flavor ‘Errante red medcherry, berry black plum, Noir’ spicy, Seed Tannin Skin Tannin SeedColor Seed (1 = high, (1 = low, 4 = high) (1 = gr, 4 = br) Flavor 4 =low) ‘Errante 4 4 woody, 1 Noir’ bitter, metallic

‘Errante Noir’ has excellent PD resistance. However, it is highlysusceptible to a wide range of pests and diseases in a manner similar toother V. vinifera cultivars, and thus it must be treated as a pure V.vinifera cultivars in terms of susceptibility to fungal diseases andpests. ‘Errante Noir’ has no known tolerance to adverse weather. Plantsobserved were found to be true to type through successive generations ofasexual reproductions.

What is claimed is:
 1. A new and distinct variety of grapevine plantdesignated ‘Errante Noir’ as shown and described herein.